This year’s Pride didn’t have the razzle-dazzle of years past. It didn’t have a parade or concerts or nights in gay and lesbian bars, no access to that one time of year when we’re surrounded by people who get it, who are queer or questioning or different, just like us. Instead, there was fear of illness and protests for change, neither of which are foreign to the queer community. The sparkle and studded leather remained in doors this year, but the message rang true just the same:
People want to exist in the world feeling safe in it, and to be comfortable in their own skin.
Writers have always been a little different.
And it’s no secret that queer people have flocked to the artist’s way in order to truly be themselves. From Lord Byron’s flowing scarves and earth tones to Elizabeth Bishop’s baggy button-downs and boyish slacks, the idea of challenging gender has been in the writer’s fashion lexicon for centuries.
The term "non-binary" is used first and foremost as a gender identity for individuals who do not identify as exclusively male or female. This identity, along with the gender non-conforming fashion choices that surround it, is about breaking down the assumptions we have around femininity and masculinity and providing options for personal expression that were previously inaccessible--and in some cases illegal--both in the fashion world and in real life. It’s about comfort, confidence, and dressing in a way that frees you from other people’s expectations of who you are, how you should dress, or what you are capable of, and it is in that spirit that I offer you the following tips.
1. Start with neutral colors.
Our culture has done a good job at telling us which colors are “masculine” and which are “feminine,” which is why wearing mostly neutral colors like beige, brown, black, white, gray, soft earthy tones, and cotton and denim textiles, work so well for a gender non-conforming approach to your outfit.
2. Try loose-fitting clothing and cool shoes.
Gender non-conforming fashion is unique in that it’s focus is physical and emotional comfort. One of the ways this is achieved is by taking attention off of the parts of the body that indicate sexuality and gender, such as the chest, waist and hips, and to instead accentuate parts that are more neutral, like the shoulders, neck and feet.
Tops include: t-shirts, button-downs, blazers, vests. Bottoms: relaxed-fit jeans, slacks, knee-length skirts. Shoes: loafers, boots, sneakers, sandals. Accessories: ties, bowties, scarves, suspenders, watches, glasses, backpacks, leather cross-body bags, necklaces and rings.
3. Make it pop!
Like Djuna Barnes in her dramatic polka dot turtle neck and dark fedora or Oscar Wilde in his velvet suit and ruffles, gender non-conforming clothing welcomes experimentation, color, and flare. Try a pattern or unconventional color or texture, and definitely expand your shopping trip to check out men’s, women’s, and unisex clothing sections. The only real difference between them is the way the clothing is cut, and sometimes our bodies look and feel better in clothing that was marketed to someone else.
Pro tip: fold your shirt cuffs over twice for a subtle detail on the arms.
4. Make it matter.
Gender non-conforming fashion, as well as the trans and non-binary individuals who pioneered it, challenges assumptions about how we each relate to our gender, not only with our clothes, but with our identities. If women’s access to a pair of pants allowed them into the factories to work, it follows that fashion can change the way we exist in the world. What would happen on the day we weren't men, women, trans, queer, or non-binary, but just people?
Furthermore, it is important to think about how fashion has previously been used in order to suppress self-expression, especially when that being expressed deviates from the accepted norm. Both men and women have been given a script to follow and a wardrobe to perform it in, but not once has the individual been asked what part they wanted to play, if any. The beauty of the non-binary gender identity is that it demands the right to not only choose the part, but to write the story and the characters yourself, to look in the dressing-room mirror and see you.
5. Make a change.
Many a conversation for social change has started with the topic of fashion, not just how you dress, but how you shop and where you place your influence. Spending your money at shops owned and operated by members of the queer community such as Rebirth Garments, Radimo L.A., and The Phluid Project will help them to continue funding programs that support queer and trans communities, to help activists organize and to force change, and most importantly, to provide people (and especially young people) with the tools they need to celebrate inclusion, expression, and diversity.
Writers and activists like Leslie Feinberg (novelist: Stone Butch Blues) and the Wachovski sisters (filmmakers: The Matrix, Cloud Atlas) have given us a deeper understanding of what it is that people who live outside of the gender binary are fighting against in our culture, by using their craft (and their fashion) to express their stories.
One can only marvel at what will be created once we no longer look at the world in black and white, but as a rainbow, whose colors dance fluidly in the spaces between water and air.
Got a fashion question? Comment below! And for more from Poetess Vinny, you can follow her blog, Vinny the Snail.
Thank you, Poetess Vinny. Always a pleasure!-- DL
Posted by: The Best American Poetry | June 29, 2020 at 05:37 PM
Fashion is very beautiful, I like the fashion of famous artists like this.
Posted by: OZoFe.Com | July 05, 2020 at 02:10 AM